The world oil and gas industry will continue to grow steadily in 2018, with demand growth expected to rise slightly to around 98.4 million barrels a day while gas demand is expected to grow faster. Gas demand is predicted to grow at an average annual rate of 2.1% per year in the period 2018-2020. World oil supplies have increased by nearly 0.87 million barrels per day to about 98.85 million barrels a day in the third quarter of 2018. In 2017, the ouput of global natural gas reached 3,680.4 thousand blocks, up 3.68% compared to 2016.

Oil and gas are exploited mainly from the continental shelf and contribute to the supply of energy and fuel for the country’s economic development, increasing export turnover. Oil and gas industry in Vietnam today still put export exploitation as the main force, so it depends heavily on world oil prices.

Oil and gas industry is an industry consisting of many stages not only exploring and exploiting but also processing from crude oil to refined oil. As usual, the oil and gas industry is divided into three categories of activities called upstream, midstream, and downstream.

In the first 9 months of 2018, the whole petroleum industry exploited nearly 9.04 million tons of oil, decrease 11.7% over the same period. The output of natural gas reached 7.4 million m3, an increase of 1.7% compared to the same period of 2017 despite limited supply and large exploitation costs while gas prices remained relatively low.

According to preliminary data from the General Department of Customs, in the first 9 months of 2018, crude oil exports reached 1.65 million tons, down 46.3%, export turnover reached 1.65 billion USD, down 25.4% compared to the same period in 2016.

The output of crude oil in Vietnam is estimated at about 2,978.5 thousand tons, worth about US $ 1,559 million, up 186.2% in volume and 282.1% in value over the same period in 2017.

Regarding gas, the export of natural gas in Vietnam in the first 9 months of 2018 reached 181.2 million USD, up 1.97% compared to the previous year. Vietnam is gradually losing its ability to secure natural gas supply throughout the country due to the decline in gas reserves in existing mines.

In 2017, the group of oil and gas enterprises has positive growth in net revenue compared to 2015. The domestic oil and gas industry is strongly affected by the world oil and gas market; oil prices have decreased but the cost of exploitation is higher than oil sales.

In the coming time, cutting crude oil production by OPEC lead to the upward trend in crude oil prices. That will have a strong impact on the domestic petroleum market; in which, the oil and gas exploitation of Vietnam is evaluated to be stable again.